The default compression program is gzip and the default extension is .gz.
You may change these to any program and extension you wish, in which case take note the various examples below will have different extensions accordingly.

What it does

The script will create directories beneath $BACKUP_DIR, named after the database.
Beneath there, gzip files are created for each day the database is backed up. There
will be at most $MAX_BACKUPS backup files for each database.

Retrieving a backup

Just drill down into the directory of the database you desire to restore
(or copy to another location). Take the prior example for instance. Suppose you wish to
unpack it in your home directory and view the contents of the database. You simply copy
and gunzip the file.